Daniel 3: Holiness and Half-truths.

Lying is an obvious moral problem and most of us would describe ourselves as being too honest to lie. This does not mean that we necessarily believe we are above lying, but rather that we have advanced to a place of maturity or sanctification (or we are merely much too honest as humans) where we just plain do not wish to lie or to be known as a liar. We have a personal code of integrity that will not permit us to tell an outright lie. This is definitely not a bad thing. In fact, it is a very good thing. But how many of us who would not even think of telling an outright lie wouldn’t think twice before telling a half-truth if is seemed to suit our position?

It seems to be a staple of humanity to tell the truth, or at least a part of the truth, because it actually does seem to suit us and our purposes better than lying. We may be able to manipulate the results that we are looking for by telling at least a partial truth while conveniently leaving out a portion of the truth. Altogether too often, it is the part of the truth that we have omitted that becomes the crux of a matter. In fact, many a reputation for integrity has been destroyed by the half-truth rather than by the whole lie.

In verses 8-12 of Daniel 3, the king has begun the dedication of his great statue of gold. All of the people who held positions of importance throughout his kingdom were invited to attend. Also, they were all jointly given instructions to bow down and worship the statue when the “worship music” began. Since the one giving the order and the one who built the statue was their king, were they all not required (morally) to obey the king and bow down to this statue? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego decided that they had a higher moral obligation to their own Creator than they did to the creator of this gold statue. They also may have assumed at this point that the king would understand and permit them an exception but we won’t get properly into that part of the story this week.

These three men and their friend Daniel all remained standing when the others bowed down to the huge gold statue. As we still see today, not all of the worshippers were paying attention to what they were doing. Several of them were apparently looking around during the worship (music, prayer, etc.). They came to the king and told him what they had seen. They reported that Daniel and his three friends (the Jews), “neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up.”

You might ask, “What’s the big deal? Didn’t the king already know that these guys worship a different god than he? Would he really have expected that these men would bow down to a cold, gold, inanimate statue?” He should not have expected these men to change and probably had not even contemplated that there would be an issue. In fact, if the men who “ratted them out” had come to the king with a simple message regarding how these faithful servants who had also told him his dream and its interpretation had not bowed down, the king might possibly have acknowledged their difference and permitted them to worship in their own way. However, that would not have pleased these men who came to the king.

Apparently there was a bit of a jealous streak between them. They told the king that, “they pay no attention to you, o king.” In fact, these were the inflammatory words that they started with. Was this statement a true statement? It could only be judged as true under the light of their actions. Since they refused the order of the king, this might have been a reasonable conclusion to come to. However, introducing the story with the conclusion before the facts was merely inflammatory and introducing these men with the mere statement that they would not bow down was a calculated move on the part of these men to move the king to anger. They succeeded. The very next verse begins with, “Furious with rage…” and we all know what dire, even unreasonable actions can be taken by any man who is filled with fury and rage.

Thought: It is vitally important that we be careful in our choice of words. It is often easy to state the obvious when the less-than-obvious is more pertinent. It often serves our desires and ambitions better to state the facts that are true on their face, knowing the reaction that they will bring. What we ought to remember though is that speaking in this way makes us morally (if not legally) liable for any damages that ensue.

In James 3, the tongue (our speech) is likened to a fire (v. 6) and goes on to say that the fire it possesses is lit by hellfire itself. Of course, the point of the entire passage is that we ought to take possession of our tongue rather than allowing it to take possession of us. As we begin this new year, let’s determine to be more careful to guard our tongue and to use our speech in ways that build people up rather than tearing (or burning) them down. Let’s speak the whole truth and take a step closer to the holiness of Almighty God.

By His grace, there is more to come….